Lady Alice And Cheshire Chat
by Eroskigal
Summary: Marinette thought that following Manon down a rabbit hole would be the weirdest part of her day, but it wasn't even close. Now, she finds herself searching through the fabled Wonderland, looking for a way home. It should also be noted that she now has to rely on help from a very familiar Cheshire Cat, who likes to flirt with her. A lot.
1. Act 1: Babysitting The White Rabbit

Act 1: Babysitting The White Rabbit

Marinette sighed for the umpteenth time that day as she heard the door to her mother's friend's house close behind her. That day hadn't been particularly easy. The night before, her and Alya had pulled an all-nighter to study for the test that was coming up in a few weeks, and today, she had managed to summon enough courage to talk to her crush, Adrien, only for Chloe to get in the way, again.

And now, here she was, ready to babysit her mother's friend's daughter, Manon. She didn't hate the child, but she had to admit that the little girl could be a real handful at times. Which made things a bit strange today. Typically, whenever she showed up to babysit, the child would run up to her, excited, and with boundless energy. However, she hadn't seen her at all since she had came in. That was odd. Her mother didn't mention her being sick or anything. "Manon, where are you?"

She wondered if the child might be hiding somewhere, ready to jump out at her. That would not be unlikely, considering her playful nature. "Marinette!"

Her attention shifted over to the stairs, where she could see the energetic little girl running to great her. This time, however, she noticed something different. Manon had a set of rabbit ears on her head. "Aww, those ears look cute on you."

The child's smile never faltered. "Come on Marinette, I have a game we can play."

She immediately ran back up the stairs, expecting the elder to follow. "Alright, I'm coming." Making her way up the stairs, Marinette couldn't find the young child anywhere, so she naturally assumed that she was hiding within one of the various doors that were lined up on both sides of the long hall.

"In here!" A voice called to her from the nearest door.

Naturally, she opened it, finding a storage closet behind it, but strangely enough, she couldn't find Manon inside. "Marinette, what are you doing? I'm over here!"

The heroine turned around to find the girl waving at her. "But, I thought you were-" She cut herself off, realizing that she must have just heard wrong.

Manon closed the door to the room, obviously expecting the elder to follow. Smiling, Marinette reopened the closed door and looked around for the young girl. "Manon, are you in here?"

The voice that she had wanted to hear had actually come from behind, much to her surprise. "Over here!"

She turned her head to see the child waving, standing in the doorway of another room. "But, I just saw you..."

Something was going on here, she thought. How would it be possible for someone to teleport from one room to another like magic? Well, it might be possible for someone under an Akuma's control, but clearly, the child was not possessed. "You have to hurry, or else we'll be late for the tea party!"

Of course, Manon was still young enough to love games like that. Shaking out of her trance, Marinette responded. "I'm coming."

However, the strange occurrence was becoming more common as the super heroine kept searching room after room, only to find that the rabbit child had some how evaded her. Finally, there was only one room left, which belonged to Manon. Opening the door, Marinette was relieved to see the child sitting at a small table in the center of the room. "Come on, you're just in time." The elder entered the room and took her respective seat at the table. The party went on for about another minute or two, as Marinette noticed that they were the only ones there, because usually, there would be some stuffed animals to accompany them.

"Hey, Marinette." The rabbit child began, "Have you ever been to Wonderland?"

Marinette's ears perked at hearing the odd question. "Wonderland?"

Manon continued. "Yeah! It's a really cool place filled with walking card soldiers, hatters, a Queen of Hearts, and even cats that grin!"

Marinette found herself chuckling a little at the amusing sounding world that the child had just described. "Cats that grin, huh? I've never seen a cat grin before."

"What do you mean? All cats grin."

Thinking back to all those times on patrol where Chat Noir had tried endlessly flirting with her, she realized that the rabbit child might actually have a point. "So, have you ever been to this 'Wonderland'?"

Manon nodded. "Yeah, plenty of times! Want me to take you there?"

Chuckling once more, the elder nodded. "Sure."

The two of them had left the room and entered the long hallway. Manon took Marinette to the end, and slid open the glass door that lead to the balcony. "See that hole down there?"

The young girl asked as she pointed through the rails. Marinette approached the edge and spotted it, not like it was exactly easy to miss it. "What about it?"

"Do you know what dug it?"

There really was only one answer she could think of. "It was Construction Workers, wasn't it?"

Manon shook her head. "Nope. It was a rabbit. You can tell it's a rabbit hole."

Admittedly, Marinette had never seen an actual rabbit hole, but she highly doubted that one would come across one this big. It was just the right size for a human to fall through. "That's how you get to Wonderland."

It was then that a horrible realization hit the super heroine. "Wait, you mean you've actually been down there before?"

The girl nodded, her smile never faltering, as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. "Yep! It's a rabbit hole and I'm a rabbit after all."

The elder honestly had no idea how to respond to that. She took another look at the giant hole. "But it has to be at least three feet deep."

"Oh it's more than that. It goes all the way down to Wonderland."

Seemingly to prove her point, Manon climbed on top of a chair while Marinette was busy observing the deep hole. She climbed onto the top of the rails and jumped off. It wasn't until then that Marinette noticed. "Manon!"

With her hero instincts springing into action, Marinette bounced over the rails, after the falling child, who seemed to be laughing for no real reason. Did she just not realize how dangerous this was or what? In all the time that she had known Manon, she never once thought she would do something this reckless. For some strange reason, Marinette was finding it harder and harder to catch up with the child. They should not have been so far apart from each other. It was making it impossible to catch the rabbit child.

Soon enough, Marinette had lost sight of Manon completely, and was now falling by herself in a dark hole. And although she was falling at a high speed at first, she started slowing down, gently floating to the bottom. She took in her surroundings. It was dark, but the super heroine could tell that it was just barely coming to light. Torches lit up the hole as she floated down, which wasn't even the strangest thing that she had seen today. No, the strangeness was only beginning.

She could hear Manon's laughter echo around her, which caused her to remember why she was there in the first place. She had to find Manon and bring her back. She found herself approaching the bottom, and slowly put her feet on it, trying to get used to standing again. The first thing she noticed was a long, full size Looking Glass on the wall. She approached it and saw as her reflection stared back at her.

However, she was not wearing the clothes that she had picked out this morning. Instead, she was wearing a red, knee length dress covered in black spots, accompanied by a white apron and black flat shoes. "What the...how did I get in this?"

Her puzzling was short lived as familiar laughter echoed through the tunnels. "Manon!"

Marinette ran down a long hallway with walls that were practically covered in doors. She didn't care about any of them though, she only cared about the one Manon was running through, and that was a tiny little door in the middle. Marinette honestly couldn't understand why she was trying so hard to get away from her. Although it didn't look like she was trying to hard. The door was clearly way too small for her to fit in, and on top of that, it was locked. As if this little endeavor wasn't weird and frustrating enough.

On a nearby table, she found a key and a bottle of some sort marked 'Drink Me'. Gripping the key tightly in her hand, Marinette drank the liquid down without even thinking about the effects. All she knew was that she had to retrieve the rabbit child. She rushed through the door as soon as the key was turned, and found that she could hardly see a thing.

It must have been night time by then, she realized, but the things she did see, such as nearby plants and trees, looked very different from those she had seen before, on television or otherwise. She had to admit that they looked enchantingly beautiful in their own way, just like plants from a strange other world should. And as she was looking for the child that had so easily escaped her grasp, she failed to notice a pair of bright green eyes looking at her though the darkness.

A wide grin immediately followed after.


	2. Act 2: Curious Place

Act 2: Curious Place

Some time had went by since she fell down the hole. She hadn't seen Manon since, which was kind of disappointing. Sure, the child often liked to get into trouble, but the part-time super heroine never thought she would ever go to this extent. Her surprise refused to go away when the next thing she stumbled upon was a dark blue caterpillar with a man's face, sitting on top of a mushroom.

His features looked sharp and determined, and for some reason, he was wearing a mask over his head. Marinette was sure she could make out the pattern of a butterfly on it. Speaking of butterflies, little black and purple colored ones were flapping their wings around the place. They were a bit unsettling, as they looked as if they could be poisonous.

"Who are you?" He asked before he continued smoking from the hookah he was using.

"Um, I'm Marinette. I'm kind of lost and have no idea where I am."

The caterpillar eyed her suspiciously. "Do you have a miraculous?"

Marinette was a bit taken a back by the question. Although she very well knew the answer to it, she had already confirmed that she didn't have it with her, leaving her unable to transform into Ladybug. Nevertheless, something about this caterpillar seemed weird to her, and it wasn't just the fact that caterpillars weren't supposed to posses the ability to talk. In the end, she decided to play dumb. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me!" The caterpillar huffed, causing the smoke to blow in her face.

After her coughing spell had ended, she tried to defend herself. "I'm not lying! I really don't have one!"

The caterpillar calmed himself after his little outburst, but he still remained skeptical. "Um, anyway, do you know the quickest way out of here?"

"Out of where?"

"You know," Marinette gestured to her surroundings, "This place."

"Why do you want to leave?" The caterpillar asked, still thinking suspiciously of her.

"All I need to do is find Manon and then we'll go home."

"Who's Manon?"

Marinette mentally noted that this caterpillar liked to ask a lot of questions. "I'm babysitting her. But then she suddenly fell down a hole, and I came in after her."

The caterpillar blew another puff of smoke. "You must be referring to the White Rabbit. She'll likely be at the palace, since she loves causing mischief for the queen."

Marinette was a bit surprised to find that this strange land had it's own monarchy, but it wasn't too out of the ordinary, she supposed. "Um, okay. Thank you."

Marinette turned to leave. "I know you have a miraculous, you just won't admit it."

She tensed for a second, and then left without another word.

* * *

Well, that was a weird first encounter. This must have only been the beginning of the strangeness of this land, because for some reason, a talking blue caterpillar didn't seem to be taken as odd in this place, wherever she was. Now that she thought about it, she distinctly remembered Manon mentioning the name of this place. She believed it was called 'Wonderland' or something like that. And as she had already suspected, the strangeness was only beginning.

"Well, I see somebody made a new friend today."

Marinette stiffened and looked around for the voice's owner. "W-Who said that?"

A slight laughing was heard coming from nowhere, but to Marinette's surprise, the perpetrator actually started fading in to sight. Once this person was completely visible, Marinette could very well make out a boy about her age, with wild blonde hair, dressed in all black. He, like the caterpillar, was also wearing a mask, except it was of a darker color, and it only surrounded his eyes. He also wore cat ears and a tail. When Manon mentioned that this place had cats that grin, she must have been talking about this one.

"Um...who are you?" She found herself asking the same question directed at her by the caterpillar.

The cat boy visibly floated down from his place in the trees. "Glad you asked, Milady."

He took her hand and kissed it, but Marinette was a little surprised by his actions and quickly pulled away. The strange thing was, this boy reminded her of someone she knew from her world, but for some reason or another, she couldn't seem to remember. He grinned widely as he bowed. "My full name is Cheshire Chat Noir, however, you can call me Chat, or Chat Noir."

Even though this familiar stranger seemed awfully friendly, Marinette had to admit that she would prefer him to that skeptical caterpillar. "Um, okay, so...how do I get out of here?"

"Why would you want to leave? This place is ameowzing."

Marinette's ear twitched at that last word. "You mean 'amazing'?"

"That is what I said, after all."

The silence enveloped Marinette's mind, as she didn't know what to think of that. "Um, anyway, I need to get to the palace."

The cat boy frowned a little at that. "Why ever would you want to go there?"

"I need to find Manon, er, the White Rabbit. The caterpillar told me I would find her there. Why, is there something wrong?"

The cat's smile hadn't yet returned. "Well, it's just that, that's where the Queen lives."

Marinette slowly nodded. "Well, it is a palace after all. It's not exactly surprising that a queen lives there."

"You don't understand," Chat spoke, "The Queen is evil. She tramples over anything that gets in her way, and if someone goes against her, she'll order their heads cut off."

Marinette found herself grateful for the warning of what she was getting herself into, even if it was from this flirtatious cat boy. "Well, even so, I still need to find her and bring her home."

"What do you mean? She is home. She belongs here in Wonderland."

"No, she doesn't. She belongs with her family, in my world."

After that, Chat Noir seemed to have receded into deep thought. About what, Marinette wasn't sure, but she had a few good ideas. It wasn't long before Chat's usual smile returned to him. "Alright then, if you insist, I can escort you to the palace." His smile disappeared once more. "But I should warn you. If the Queen figures out you have a miraculous, she'll definitely have your head."

Marinette's mind went back to the first conversation. "As I told the caterpillar, I don't have one on me."

Chat's smile was back. "Of course you do, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to come here from your world."

The super heroine had to take in this fact. "But I could have sworn I left it behind."

"Check your apron pocket."

Curious, Marinette searched, only to find the exact jewel she was looking for. "What? How did this get here?"

Chat smirked, smugly. "I knew you had it with you. I also have one."

He showed her a ring with a paw print on it, that worked just like her Ladybug earrings, which she was currently wearing on her ears. "It is time for us to depart, Milady. I can't have you fumbling in the woods alone. You might just run into a Bandersnatch."

Marinette was about to ask what that was, but something told her she really didn't want to know. And thus, the adventures of the strange duo had begun. Although this cat seemed familiar, he really did. Marinette didn't know where she had seen him before, and he was being seemingly vague, avoiding her questions and whatnot. Nevertheless, their adventures had only just begun.


	3. Act 3: House Of The Duchess

Act 3: House Of The Duchess

Try as she might, Marinette was barely able to remember her world before she came to Wonderland. She remembered her parents fairly well, but she scarcely remembered anyone else. Her friends and schoolmates were unrecognizable, and she honestly didn't know what to make of it. Her only real hope at remembering anything was making it back to her world. Whether she would bring Manon back with her after all this was still yet to be determined. Sure, she wouldn't know how to explain to the girl's parents that she had lost her down a giant hole, but she would get around it, somehow.

And now, there was her traveling companion, a Cheshire Cat who wore a mask that surrounded his eyes, and flirted with her nearly every chance he got. It was a bit annoying and his pickup lines always involved a cat pun of some sort. Nevertheless, he was probably one of the better choices for a companion in this place, at least compared to that caterpillar.

"Um, so where exactly are we going?"

Chat stopped before he could mention how 'Nyantastic' she was, and answered. "Were going to visit a friend of mine."

Marinette raised an eyebrow. "Really? Who are they?"

"She lives in this fair sized house, not to small, but not big enough to rival the Queen's castle. Her status is high, she has a fish footman, and she prefers two tablespoons of black pepper in her tea."

At that last part, Marinette visibly winced. One spoon of pepper in a cup seemed like it would taste terrible, let alone two. Chat noticed her reaction and agreed with her. "I know, black pepper in one's tea seems unspeakable. I keep telling her to put that highly refined salt in her tea instead, but she just won't listen."

It was at that comment that Marinette remembered she was in Wonderland, and that nothing made sense here. "You keep telling me all these things about her, but you've never actually told me who she is."

"Sure I have. You have an idea about what kind of person she is, don't you?"

"Um, well, sort of, I guess. Is she your girlfriend?"

Chat looked ready to laugh at that question. "Of course not. She's betrothed to another friend of mine, although he's kind of a commoner. Did I forget to mention she's a duchess?"

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, you sorta left that out."

All that talking had really taken up some time, since the next time they looked in front of them, a fair sized house had already come into view. "And here we are. All we have to do now is get past the footman."

Chat disappeared from Marinette's side and reappeared at the front door, ringing the bell. Once she caught up, the door opened to reveal a fish dressed from heat to tail in fancy clothing. Well, she guessed Chat hadn't been lying about a fish footman. Speaking of Chat, the way his eyes looked at the fish and the way his teeth were showing reminded Marinette of a predator eyeing it's prey, which is kind of what was going on. After a sharp elbow jab, he spoke. "We're here to see the duchess."

The fish stepped aside and let them through, but not without shadily eyeing Chat. "Do you do that every time you come here?"

Chat shrugged. "Maybe one or twice...or five times a visit."

Once they reached the end of the long hall, they came to a room with two couches facing each other. On one of them, sat a girl around Marinette's age, with dark red hair and tanned skin, wearing a fancy light blue dress. Yep, she was definitely a duchess. Also, much like Chat, she seemed familiar to her. She had definitely seen her somewhere before, but she couldn't think of who or where.

"Milady, allow me to introduce you to Duchess Alya Cesaire the First. Duchess Alya, let me introduce you to Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who has recently lost her way here in Wonderland."

The Duchess kindly extended her hand. "Nice to meet you."

Marinette didn't have much experience with anyone of a high status, but she still returned the handshake. "Nice to meet you, too."

The two of them sat on the couch opposite the duchess. "So you tell me she's lost her way in Wonderland?" She asked the cat.

"Yeah. Apparently she followed the White Rabbit down the hole and ended up here."

The duchess shook her head. "The White Rabbit is a bit of trouble, isn't she?"

Marinette agreed. "You have no idea."

"Is there any way to get her back to her world?" Chat asked with the first bit of seriousness Marinette had seen from him since they met.

"Well, there might be one way. Can I see your Miraculous for a second?"

Marinette felt that this person cold be trusted, so she reached into her apron and grabbed the stones, two earrings, and handed them over. "You have two? I didn't know that."

Alya inspected the stones some more and eventually gave her answer. "There's a recipe for a special potion that might help you. If you drink it, the Rabbit Hole might open up again and let you through. You already have two of the ingredients right here."

Marinette couldn't see anything other than the earrings. "Wait, you mean these?"

"Well, yeah, you need a Miraculous Potion to go home since their the things that brought you here in the first place."

"But how am I supposed to make these a part of a potion?"

"Well, you can do a few things. You can ground them up, transfer their power into the potion somehow, or just plain drink them."

Alya picked up a notebook and pen sitting on the coffee table and began to write something inside. Once she finished jotting it down, she tore the page out of the notebook and presented it to those sitting opposite her. "This is a list of all the ingredients you'll need for the potion. I can provide the first one for you."

Reaching under the table, Alya pulled out some pepper. "You'll be needing Black Pepper for a potion like this. It's also good for tea."

Marinette smiled. "Thank you so much, Duchess Alya."

She chuckled a bit. "Oh, my dear, it's my pleasure. Just be sure to get home safely."

Chat flashed a grin. "Don't worry, I'll keep her out of trouble."

Alya rolled her eyes playfully. "But it's you I worry about."

After that, the duo made their leave, well, after one last hungry look at the Footman, that is. However, the Duchess still felt a tad bit uncomfortable with the whole situation. Especially since one of the ingredients on the list required them to go to the one place most Wonderlanders wouldn't dare to go.

The last person who came from outside Wonderland had almost had their heads cut off. What was her name? Alice something? Oh well Marinette would be fine, because she had Chat with her. Sure, that Cheshire may have been a flirt, but if worst came to worst he would protect her. Alya was certain of it.


End file.
